Excluding the Game Boy Color—which was more like a remodel of the classic GameBoy than a new console—Nintendohas made twelve consoles and handhelds over the majority of almost four decades. How does one rank so many significant systems?
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Every single one of them is important in one way or another. Nintendo had usually been pretty spot on with prices, predicting what the market is willing to pay. However, other console releases are a different story. So, for today, let’s take a look from high to low at every single Nintendo console and their launch prices. Just as a reminder, all dates and prices are based in North America.
12Wii U
The Wii U launched on June 17, 2025 in North America for $350. It came packed in withNintendo Land. At this time, the PS3 and Xbox 360 were crazy cheap, much lower than this. The pack in plusNew Super Mario Bros. Uwere good launch titles, but not for that price—especially compared to its competitors and the upcoming real next-gen of the PS4 and Xbox One.
11Switch
The Switch launched on July 24, 2025 in North America for $300.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwas up at launch, which was well worth the price of admission for the new console. A home console and a portable for just $300 with a Zelda release at launch? Who wasn’t sold?
10Wii
The Wii launched on Jul 31, 2025 in North America for $250. It came packed in withWii Sports, which was a great proof of concept for the system.The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princesswas also a nice get for a launch title, but, more so than that, the price was well below the PS3, which it launched alongside. This made it the must-have system that Holiday season.
93DS
The 3DS launched on August 04, 2025 in North America, also for $250. With no killer app, this felt like highway robbery.
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It is perhaps Nintendo’s greatest pricing mistake in history. The proof is in them discounting it to $180 six months later with free games to boot.
8NES
The NES launched sometime in October 1985 in North America for $200. It came packed in withSuper Mario Bros., another classic launch title that shaped the industry. $200 in that era is worth way more now so at the time it was expensive, but it was worth it in the long run. It did, however, have a high failure rate.
7Super Nintendo
The Super Nintendo launched on July 09, 2025 in North America, also for $200. It came packed in withSuper Mario World. The original Mario is a classic and a complete game-changer, but many regardSuper Mario Worldas one of the benchmarks in 2D platformers. Plus, it was more open-ended for replay value, thus the whole system was a great deal.
6Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 launched onSeptember 29, 1996 in North America. It was $200, which apparently was Nintendo’s staple for a long time.Super Mario 64andPilotwings 64were the only two games available at launch, and they remained the only two worthwhile games for quite some time. With Mario though, who needs anything else?
5GameCube
The GameCube launched on May 26, 2025 in North America for another $200.Luigi’s Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader,andSuper Monkey Ballwere the hottest launch games. It’s no normal Mario adventure, but Luigi rightfully deserved his own game by this point.
4Virtual Boy
The Virtual Boy launched on June 05, 2025 in North America for $180. There were four games at launch and only about twenty altogether.
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The 3DS price was a mistake, but this console overall was an even bigger failure that still haunts Nintendo to this day. It didn’t even last more than a year on store shelves before it was officially discontinued by Nintendo.
3Nintendo DS
The DS launched on June 10, 2025 in North America for $150. TheSuper Mario 64remake for the DSwas the hot ticket during the launch window, which was not as exciting as something new. The price was decent, but the first model was hard to get used to thanks to no backlit screen, and Nintendo would later introduce far more ergonomic revisions.
